I took my first scooter ride last night. Lee was gone all day and evening so I went out without him to dinner with some friends and one of them, who lives in our building, offered me a ride home. The ride was both thrilling and terrifying and did not convince me that we need to buy a scooter any time soon. It's a pretty vulnerable feeling to be going the speed of a car in the craziness of Kaohsiung traffic. It's also pretty exciting and makes it quicker and more convenient to get to other parts of the city. There's also the added benefit of carrying space for things like groceries. But so far the bikes have been okay so we'll stick with them for awhile.

This morning we decided to head back out to the northern beach that we visited last weekend, this time on bikes. We wanted to try getting down to the port area on the western side of the city as an alternative to the bike path. We also got the chance to get in some hill work, something we never do in the city itself.

We had heard about the Kaohsiung zoo, a dismal place for the captives but a nice bike ride with views if you can handle the climb. The road was quite busy with bikers and joggers even at 7:30 on a Sunday morning and the hill was as steep as advertised.

We stopped at the entrance to the zoo but didn't bother going in.

 Further up the hill was the Buddhist Temple with a very happy Buddha.

At the top of the hill was the Martyrs' Shrine. It commemorated the Chinese who died fighting the Japanese in mainland China in the years leading up to 1945.

When you walk through the first building you come to a courtyard with the second building. It was stunningly beautiful, tucked up against the cliff edge overlooking the city.

The mouth of the harbor is between the hills on the right. The further hill is actually part of Cijin Island, an oversized sandbar that protects the harbor. It was a pretty smoggy day which you can tell from this photo of downtown:

After the Martyrs' Shrine we were rewarded with the downhill ride though National Sun Yat-sen University and out to Sizihwan Beach. There were busloads of tourists heading to the former British consulate and not one person on the beach. It was still kind of early but it was well into the 80's, plenty warm enough to want to be in the water. I just don't get it, why the Taiwanese don't make use of all this waterfront.